make a fairy/gnome house - part two

I fell in love with each and every one of the little fairy/gnome houses the preschoolers made at camp last week. (see part one here). Each house was created with little bit of the personality of each child shining through. By nature, children are such creative little beings and I am always enchanted by how they go about working on a project. My very favorite detail of all the houses was this pine cone bottom, that was simply pushed up in the doorway of the above house (the top scales of the cone were removed and used as "shingles" on another house). The boy, in a matter-of-fact way said, "It's protection. For the gnome." Then, "I need an acorn...you know, as a light." And so it went...once the kids got started, their vision of what they were creating became clearer. I tried to listen carefully to all the wonderful little details that came out of their imaginations as they added this or that, but I was feeling a bit harried with my hot glue trying to keep up with the need to anchor something down immediately.

Here are all the wonderful creations:

More little details on the mossy roof tops...an acorn bird nest with two bean eggs, a pine cone for one chimney and an acorn for the other ("the part that dips down in the acorn is where the smoke comes out"). Shell "doorbells", stone edging, glass beads to reflect for light. Every little piece put on with such intention. So sweet.

No room at the table for snack, so we had our popcorn "picnic style" in the playroom.

There was lots of dress up and gnome play and stories this week too.

I was happy to have learned about making dandelion puffs earlier in the month and we happily hairspaired and glittered the white puffs in the backyard, which I later went out and picked to glue sticks to. They are truly magical.

I also had fun playing with building a new little house for the nature table. I chose stone siding, a moss roof top and little stepping stones made out of pepples left to dry in a puddle of glue.

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make a fairy/gnome house - part two

I fell in love with each and every one of the little fairy/gnome houses the preschoolers made at camp last week. (see part one here). Each house was created with little bit of the personality of each child shining through. By nature, children are such creative little beings and I am always enchanted by how they go about working on a project. My very favorite detail of all the houses was this pine cone bottom, that was simply pushed up in the doorway of the above house (the top scales of the cone were removed and used as "shingles" on another house). The boy, in a matter-of-fact way said, "It's protection. For the gnome." Then, "I need an acorn...you know, as a light." And so it went...once the kids got started, their vision of what they were creating became clearer. I tried to listen carefully to all the wonderful little details that came out of their imaginations as they added this or that, but I was feeling a bit harried with my hot glue trying to keep up with the need to anchor something down immediately.

Here are all the wonderful creations:

More little details on the mossy roof tops...an acorn bird nest with two bean eggs, a pine cone for one chimney and an acorn for the other ("the part that dips down in the acorn is where the smoke comes out"). Shell "doorbells", stone edging, glass beads to reflect for light. Every little piece put on with such intention. So sweet.

No room at the table for snack, so we had our popcorn "picnic style" in the playroom.

There was lots of dress up and gnome play and stories this week too.

I was happy to have learned about making dandelion puffs earlier in the month and we happily hairspaired and glittered the white puffs in the backyard, which I later went out and picked to glue sticks to. They are truly magical.

I also had fun playing with building a new little house for the nature table. I chose stone siding, a moss roof top and little stepping stones made out of pepples left to dry in a puddle of glue.